


Ook

by Arzg



Category: The Littlest Pet Shop
Genre: Monologue, writing experiment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 05:17:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14969891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arzg/pseuds/Arzg
Summary: Minka reflects on her friendships while introducing a new visitor to the Littlest Pet Shop.





	Ook

Ook! Ook! It’s a newww visitor to _Littlest Pet Shop_! Ook!

Should I get Zoe to sing you the song? You know, the one that’s all “ _I’m Minka Mark, I’m the monkey artist, I talk a mile minute so ya better get started!_ ” that she sings to _all_ the new pets? No, wait, even better, what if I just show you my painting collection? Who needs a whole song when you can have _splatterpaint_?!

Hmm, which one should I show you? So many choices! How about… _that_ one? It’s a piece called “Hi I’m Minka Mark and Welcome to the Littlest Pet Shop”. See that pink splash over there? That’s me. It’s called _symbolism_. It’s an art thing. And you see that rainbow blob over the right? That’s you! Rule of thirds, yada yada yada.

You’ll love the Littlest Pet Shop. I know I do! It’s practically where I grew up. I mean, I didn’t grow up here – I, guess, I guess I didn’t do that much growing up at all. When I was outside all the time, well, before my humans adopted me… But I started coming to Littlest Pet Shop every day, and it’s been great!

You see, LPS is where I discovered my love of art and painting and drawing and everything colourful! At first I was really really _really_ bad, but hey, thanks to all my friends here, I improved and improved and improved and improved. My friends are wonderful; they even model for me all the time, and when I’m low on inspiration, a joke from Pepper or a hug from Penny Ling always brings back my creative sense. I don’t know what I’d do without my friends; it’s just— no, I shouldn’t say that, that’s mean. But, well…

I don’t know. The thing is, while I don’t know what _I’d_ do without my friends, I think I know full well what they would do without me. Take that time I experimented in surrealist portraits. I was sitting down with my artist thinking cap snugly on my little monkey ears, and it _hit_ me! _Sunil and Vinnie_ were who I needed. So, sitting there all alone, I waddled towards the pair of best friends. They were in the middle of a dance competition – not that Sunil was trying very hard – and I noticed in my peripheral vision all the other pets busy. Russell was reading a book out loud on comedy advice to Pepper; in another corner, Penny Ling and Zoe were trying on outfits together, But I needed my muses – at the time, it felt like they were screaming out, “Minka Minka! Paint us! Paint us!”. What choice did I have but to listen? That’s the first thing they teach you in Monkey Art School: when your muses are ooking, you better get coo-king. The second thing they teach you is that “coo-king” is Monkey Art slang for painting.

Anyways, so I scrambled over to Sunil and Vinnie and shouted, “Hey you guys! Wanna be in a painting?!”

I thought I saw them grin like the sun, so before I heard an answer back, I darted to my studio up in the swing, sprinting back and forth to bring my easel, canvas, brushes, and paints as fast as my little legs could carry them!

By the time I had returned, I was just so excited to start painting them in any way I could that, well, you guess what I did… I started painting them! Didja guess it? Didja didja didja?!

So I was painting them doing this surrealist dance competition, two GIANT cast shadows doing the tango together without any owners to project them. It was super crazy. Not my favourite piece of art or anything, but wow! They were great models for dancing; they made it so naturally, _as if I wasn’t even there painting them!_

But…

That’s when it hit me.

It was like I _wasn’t_ even there painting them.

I bet when I ran back to grab my paint supplies, they didn’t even notice I’d left.

I bet when they got back, they didn’t even notice my presence.

That dance competition? Would’a happened, with me or without.

It’s like I didn’t exist.

Look around… everyone is paired up with their best friend. Zoe, Penny Ling, and Pepper are tight as a muffin. (Are muffins tight? I think muffins are tight.) Russell and Blythe are best friends. (Did I tell you about Blythe? No? Blythe Baxter. She works at the Littlest Pet Shop. She’s a human, but she can talk to pets. It’s crazy! You’ll like her, I bet.)

Sunil and Vinnie, well, if they were any closer, our creators would be getting angry letters from homophobic human parents. I guess I’ll have to leave it that so the humans don’t lose their jobs because I said something I shouldn’t.

But anyway, every pet here is so close to each other. All my friends are each other’s friend. But where does that leave me? What best friend is there to chase me and constantly get on my nerve, like Vinnie gets on Sunil’s? I’ve never had a friend like that.

I told you about my attempts with the boys. But take that time I tried to fit in with the girls. Well, it turns out that Zoe, Penny Ling, and Blythe meet every week for “Girl Time”. They put cucumbers on their faces. It’s weird. I didn’t really mind; I was sure if my friends didn’t invite me, it was because they knew I wouldn’t like it. But I guess Pepper must have found out about the meetings, and she must have gotten jealous about all that, because she confronted me one day. I was in the middle of my latest composition “Red #40”, a splatter paint masterpiece of different shades of red, and Pepper came over smelling angry. I mean that literally. Pepper’s a skunk. When she’s angry, you can smell it. And that day she was _angry_.

Pepper persuaded me we should come to “Girl Time”, so we went. It was wacky. They didn’t have any problem with Pepper and me joining, since we were girls. But then I asked why we couldn’t invite my other friends, like Sunil and Russell, and everyone went crazy. Well, not everyone. Mostly Zoe and Penny Ling. They tried to convince me that that… exclusion was okay. And I guess they’re right; Russell would’ve hated what they did at Girl Time.

But I’m a girl. I hated what they did at Girl Time, although I tried not to let it show. The other pets didn’t know, except for maybe Pepper. Even by the end, Pepper didn’t approve of “Girl Time” anymore. Neither of us went after that, and it never came up again. I guess Pepper wasn’t mad at them anymore, since she realised we wouldn’t’ve liked the cucumbers anyway. Maybe she is… but she’s awfully friendly with Zoe Trent for someone who’s still mad.

Maybe Blythe noticed too. Blythe is caring like that. If I had one real friend in the world, I don’t think it would be the pets; it would be Blythe. Blythe always knows what to say or what to do. She’s an amazing friend.

Or at least, she _would_ be an amazing friend. I don’t see her much. She’s always at school, or teaching Russell algebra, or over with her _human_ friends. I don’t blame her. If I lived in a world filled with other monkeys, I’d spend time with other monkeys too! I guess my human says that his company is filled with monkeys, but I don’t think that’s what I mean.

No boys. No girls. No Blythe.

Ook!

Ook?

…

Ook.

It’s just me and my monkey art.

**Author's Note:**

> Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0. Spread free culture!


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